Ostara Blog Hop

©McCracken & Worthington

The Wheel is turning, as it always does, and so we come to Ostara, Easter, or the Spring Equinox: time for another Tarot Blog Hop.  Welcome to those popping in from New Paths Tarot, and if you found your way here by another route, you might think about heading back there.  Otherwise, the path forward is signposted at the bottom of this article, or you can get an overview from the master list.

Morgan Drake Eckstein, our wrangler, suggested that at this time we think about the dance between dark and light, and the ambivalence that we have about cards and their different meanings, their light and dark poles.

Although Yule is seen in pagan terms as the point when the Sun is reborn, and the Oak King once again begins to come to prominence, that isn't when I really feel the return of the light.  Yule is the darkest time of Winter, after all.  And though it is when the hours of daylight gradually begin to increase again, I notice more the turning point of the Spring Equinox (or thereabouts, depending on your geographical location), when the hours of daylight finally overtake the hours of darkness.  For me, this is far more the time to celebrate the Greenman, the Oak King, the rebirth of vegetation and light and warmth.  This is when light reasserts itself over darkness, and growth is to be seen in fields and woods.

The Lily card is a lovely representation of this, and the card I chose to mark this sabat in the Celtic Lenormand deck.  Lilies are perennials that live as bulbs in the earth during the winter months, starting to peek their heads out again when spring comes.  It indicates new, green growth after the dark of winter.  And though it is just a small beginning, it is found in the woods where grand, old trees show the more powerful face of the Greenman.

In Lenormand terms, the Lily is also a card of quite ambivalent meanings, fitting once again with the theme of this blog hop!  It is a card that varies considerably: from passion to purity; from sexuality to harmony; from an older man (supported by the playing card association with the King of Spades) to an older woman to elderly people in general.  How we interpret it in a given reading will depend on a lot of factors: what card combinations it forms; what the question is; where the card falls...  As is so often the case in divinataion, it's a delightful dance of intuition and learning.

Hopefully, you've enjoyed this peek at another card from the Celtic Lenormand.  Next stop on the blog hop is with Shonna at the Ace of Stars Tarot blog!